# Firebase Cloud Messaging vs ntfy

> Firebase Cloud Messaging scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against ntfy's 61.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ntfy leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do notify push. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firebase-cloud-messaging-vs-ntfy
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firebase-cloud-messaging-vs-ntfy.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firebase-cloud-messaging-vs-ntfy.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firebase-cloud-messaging-vs-ntfy.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Firebase Cloud Messaging scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against ntfy's 61.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ntfy leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do notify push.

- Firebase Cloud Messaging: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #162 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/firebase-cloud-messaging.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/firebase-cloud-messaging.json
- ntfy: grade C, 61.5/100, rank #420 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ntfy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ntfy.json

## Which one, for what

### Firebase Cloud Messaging (B)

Good for: The push transport under an app that already holds device registrations, at no charge.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 53
- Security & auth, 68 against 38
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 67

Watch for: Push transport only. No in-app feed, email, SMS, user preferences, digests or templates

### ntfy (C)

Good for: An agent that has to reach its own operator or a small team on their phones with no setup.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 66
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: Unreserved topics on ntfy.sh can be read and written by anyone who knows the name


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Firebase Cloud Messaging | ntfy | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 83 | ntfy +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 53 | Firebase Cloud Messaging +33 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 66 | Firebase Cloud Messaging +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 38 | Firebase Cloud Messaging +30 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 50 | ntfy +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 67 | Firebase Cloud Messaging +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 78 | Firebase Cloud Messaging +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.8 · B** | **61.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Firebase Cloud Messaging | ntfy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google | ntfy |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://fcm.googleapis.com` | `https://ntfy.sh` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. The Firebase Admin SDKs are Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-08-27 |
| Terms last updated | 2021-11-09 | 2026-01-26 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-06-15 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 11.5M npm/wk, 3.8M PyPI/wk | 34k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Firebase Cloud Messaging.** Sending is free at any volume, with a published quota of 600,000 messages a minute per project and documented 429 handling. FCM is push transport only. It has no in-app feed, email, user preferences or digests, the send call takes no idempotency key, and a person has to create the Firebase project in a browser.

**ntfy.** Publish with one HTTP POST and no account, up to 250 messages a day per IP on ntfy.sh. Unreserved topics on ntfy.sh can be read and written by anyone who knows the name.

## Before you call either

### Firebase Cloud Messaging

1. Mint an access token from a service account with the scope `https://www.googleapis.com/auth/firebase.messaging`, then POST to `https://fcm.googleapis.com/v1/projects/<project-id>/messages:send`
2. Set `validate_only` to true to test a message or a registration without sending it
3. On 429 wait for the `retry-after` header, or 60 seconds if it is absent. Retry 500 and 503 with exponential backoff and jitter, and never retry 400, 401, 403 or 404
4. Drop a registration when the error is `UNREGISTERED` (404). Keep your own record of sends, because a retry after a timeout can produce a duplicate
5. Target `fid` in new code. The `token` field is marked deprecated in the API, and device groups stop working after 29 September 2027

### ntfy

1. Use a long random topic name, or a reserved topic with a Bearer token
2. Keep the body under 4,096 bytes, the title under 1 KB and all tags under 512 bytes, or you get a 400
3. Don't blind-retry a publish. There's no idempotency key, so the person gets it twice
4. Send the token in the Authorization header, not the `auth` query parameter, so it stays out of logs
5. Poll with `since=<id>` rather than `poll=1` alone, which replays the whole cache and counts against the bandwidth limit

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Firebase Cloud Messaging or ntfy?

Firebase Cloud Messaging scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against ntfy's 61.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ntfy leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do Firebase Cloud Messaging and ntfy need an API key?

Firebase Cloud Messaging uses an OAuth sign-in. ntfy takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Firebase Cloud Messaging and ntfy without installing anything?

Yes. Firebase Cloud Messaging has a hosted endpoint at https://fcm.googleapis.com and ntfy at https://ntfy.sh.

### Are Firebase Cloud Messaging and ntfy open source?

No open-source release is listed for Firebase Cloud Messaging. ntfy is open source (Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual)).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firebase-cloud-messaging-vs-ntfy.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firebase-cloud-messaging-vs-ntfy.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "firebase-cloud-messaging", "b": "ntfy"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare firebase-cloud-messaging ntfy`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/firebase-cloud-messaging.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ntfy.json

## Other comparisons with Firebase Cloud Messaging or ntfy

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- [Knock vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-ntfy.md)
- [MagicBell vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magicbell-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Novu vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-ntfy.md)
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